Jorge Ventura

[00:00:06] If you're a California conservative, a libertarian, a moderate Democrat, believe in common sense, or just the sane person, this is the political podcast for you. It's the California Underground Podcast.

[00:00:27] What's going on, everybody? Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the California Underground Podcast. I am your host, Phil. And as always with me, my trusty cohost, the best, the fastest researcher in the West. And tonight we are happy to be joined by a special guest, good friend of the show, Jorge Ventura, who we

[00:00:44] We've done things in the past. I've been on his account. He's come on and we've talked about a lot of things. So, Jorge is a journalist with News Nation, he has done incredible reporting, put out some amazing documentaries, which I recommend everybody go watch and we could talk about that in a little bit. Jorge, welcome to the show. How are you? Jorge Ventura, California Department of Education Office of The Social Security Council

[00:01:14] know who you are. Yeah, so name's Jorge Bintaro right now. I'm a board reporter, kind of national correspondent for News Nation. Got into reporting around 2020. That's when I got my internship with The Daily Caller. It was actually right around the time when the George Floyd riots started. So instead of having the normal internship, like a regular kind of journalism student, I got pushed right into the midst of the riots. So kind of the riots of 2020 right away.

[00:01:43] So in around 2021, I started covering a lot of the business closures. That's I think when I got connected with Phil here in California, I was covering really a lot of what small businesses were going through, restaurants, with the whole shutdowns. And then when Bintaro not elected, the Bintaro started becoming the story. And I started just covering the board really from what I call like a Donzo style journalist. So it's very boots on the ground. We try to get really good video

[00:02:10] to really tell the stories, not just always kind of write about articles. We really want to show people the kind of the video footage and got to produce documentaries on the illegal marijuana connections connected to cartels in Southern California and just been really covering the board ever since. And it really played a massive, you know, the board story really played a massive role in just the latest presidential election. I was kind of really shocked to see how important

[00:02:34] immigration was and just how everything started to develop. So yeah, I've been really playing the news since 2020. I said more of a Gonzo style, boots on the ground, try to really put ourselves in the middle of the story. Never been a fan of reporting from the newsroom. I really like to talk to people and really, really try to get the feel. So yeah, it's been kind of really a crazy journey. And right now still planning on immigration. Now it's a new story, right? We have Trump in office.

[00:03:03] So it's really, it's big on the executive orders on the border, Mexico reacting to ice raids and then serve the U S. So, um, always have been happening and, um, always try to, I always, at least always try to cover the big stories also coming from California. So I always try to stop, uh, stay on top of what's always happening in the golden state where, where I'm from. That's the one thing I always appreciate about your reporting, especially when people are talking

[00:03:29] I always knew you were a reliable source when I follow you and see your videos because you're there. And to your point, like, there's a lot of people who show up from big news sites and they show up for an hour or two and they kind of look at it and go, Oh, you know, this is what we see on the border. And then they go back to wherever they came from. Um, but I feel like you being there

[00:03:52] consistently makes a difference in sort of the, your reputation as a reporter, because I know you're there a lot. It's not just a flyby. It's not, you're just not parachuting in. You see it more on a consistent basis so you can report on it more accurately. Is that what you find is like being there more consistently, you get a better sense of the, the whole story.

[00:04:17] Yeah, that's exactly right. I think one, one big story that like the media missed during the last four years of Biden and an issue of immigration, um, in connection with the Latino vote is they were surprised that after the election, all these Latinos ended up voting for Trump. Um, for me, that wasn't a big supply. The thing that started really covering that angle around 2023, I was in the ground, I'm having South Texas. So South Texas, for folks who don't know, um, it's all these counties that overwhelmingly vote Democrat and they're overwhelmingly Latino by like 90% of these

[00:04:47] populations. They've been doing Democrat for decades, but being on the ground there, um, literally every single day, I got to actually speak to Latino voters and then just see in real time, they view shift on immigration as Biden just continued not to pay attention to the border. Um, you really had small communities like Del Rio, I believe has like a population of like 17,000 people. Basically they're all Hispanic. Um, for folks who don't know, that's, that's the little town back in 2021

[00:05:15] where 17,000 Haitians literally arrived at once under the international bridge and it just sharked down that local economy. So for me, being there, you get to the full sense of the story, but you also get to understand how voters feel and why they're changing their vote and just kind of seeing the perspective change in real time. Now the media is jumping on this kind of story of like Latinos going red, these communities, you know, now going red for the first time. We were, we were

[00:05:42] already seeing that, you know, for the past two or three years. So for me, that's, that story wasn't new. Um, I was talking about it and, uh, it's just been fascinating, fascinating really, really to watch. So when you're there every single day, you get, you really get the full story in the way that the corporate media misses out. Um, I'm not gonna be naming any names, but I know a bunch of corporate media journalists that do show up maybe for one or two days. They just get their, the quick headline and they're out. They don't understand the communities, what, what, what, what the local

[00:06:10] people really feel and how the local resources were, were strained. Um, one of the big, big misses was like out of Eagle Pass. That's an area that's same thing, small Hispanic community, but they're getting overwhelmed with like thousands of crossings per day to the point where, um, because to cross into Eagle Pass, you have to cross through the river, the Rio Grande Valley. So in, um, it got to a point where migrants were actually drowning every day to the point where they're averaging one death a day. So I actually got to see how a little community, they don't have

[00:06:40] any resources. I think they had like six ambulances for their entire county. How all of a sudden they were in the forefront of a federal issue, right? This is not an issue that, that Eagle Pass, Texas, can solve. The city council votes is, it's not to them to get solved by the mayor, you know, doing anything. This is literally a federal government issue, but you get to see a little town have to deal with it. And you got to like, I got to like go and buddy with like, um, just local first responders who had to like literally put bodies out of the river,

[00:07:10] which is something that they never signed up for. Um, so when you were there, that's the type of stuff that you get to see and just how, how things change. And even me as a reporter, I did not know how big the innovation story was going to play in the 2024 presidential election. I think, and correct me if I'm, I'm wrong. This is just a theory that I think it's thanks in part to work like journalists, like you who are there and are not being filtered through a corporate media

[00:07:38] sense. And that kind of reporting that was catching fire on social media and other places, YouTube, that independent, like new media. I think it shifted the narrative on immigration this time around. And I think that real, like authentic reporting people saw it and people saw like, Oh my gosh, look what is happening at the border. And, uh, I think it moved the needle a

[00:08:05] little, if, if nothing, it contributed to moving the needle. Cause more people, not only on the border, we're seeing it and seeing the ramifications of it, but it seemed like now everybody across the country was seeing it and sharing it. Um, and it wasn't no longer just, you know, I laughed cause I think it was one MSNBC reporter, like 30 minutes after Trump got inaugurated and they Rachel Maddow cut

[00:08:30] to him and they were like, what do you see out there? Brad or so-and-so. And he's like, well, I've been here for 30 minutes and it certainly doesn't look like a national emergency to me. And it's like, like, bro, you've been on the border for 30 minutes. Like that's how are you? This is what you're showing people, nothing happening. But, um, yeah, I, I think like journalists like you who are there and, and really showing it has tipped the country sentiment about illegal immigration. Um, what do you think?

[00:09:02] No, for me, like I said, I was, I was just shocked because when you're there, you, you, you, you, you're not thinking about the bigger outcome. You're not thinking about presidential elections. You just want to tell the story. Um, and I just think that the people who at least live they felt like they were just completely ignored by the president that they voted for. And I think the big shockwave for the Hispanic community, at least in Texas came in 2021 where

[00:09:27] you had 17,000 Haitians arrive at once. It was, it overwhelmed the community so bad that they actually had a shot off the point of entry to Mexico. And for a local community like Del Rio, you guys understand is we're, you know, by being in San Diego and then having Tijuana is, uh, well, especially for Del Rio is they depend on that workforce coming from Mexico. They work in their restaurants, you know, they work at their small businesses in their store. So by shutting off that point of entry, the local community, like the economy literally lost hundreds of

[00:09:56] thousand dollars every single day. So that was, that's like the first shift you see. Um, and we were trying to tell that story from the beginning for me, I don't have any, any biases. Like I didn't care. I just wanted to report the news. Um, and I was kind of trying to tell the story how this issue was impacting everyone. So it was impacting the Americans that lived in these small towns. It was also impacting migrants because migrants are not being sexually assaulted. They were being smuggled by cartels at a high rate ever before, especially like the children

[00:10:24] with the whole story with it, with the unaccompanied minors. Um, so when you're there, you start, you really start to see this story unfold. At that time, you don't, you know, you'd never think about the bigger outcome. Um, but for me, that lesson started early in journalism. Like it started in the riots because I remember, um, I was in Poland, anything back in 2020. And if folks that are around Poland, they're rather for like over a hundred days, but CNN would have a replay that would come kind of similar to what you said with MSNBC,

[00:10:49] where he would come in at like 2 PM. So it'd be like 2 PM sends out like no one's obviously like rioting, destroying things. So he'd be like, these, these, uh, protests are peaceful. It's, it's, it's a right wing media that, uh, over centralizes. And then obviously they weren't there all day. We were in protest for peace from the day, you know, we get to kind of see the chaos unfolded at night. Um, so I kind of put that same mentality with the immigration stories. We wanted to tell it

[00:11:14] from A to Z, um, and tell it from the migrant perspective, from Mexicans in the border towns, from the Americans' perspective, from local law enforcement, first responders. And you really got to see this whole thing on the ground to, I mean, to, to now, I mean, I think, like I said, I had no idea that in 2024, um, immigration was going to be such a good issue, but I was already telling the story that Hispanics, the way to view it in addition was, was really started to change.

[00:11:42] Even in South Texas, where it was deep blue, where you had Hispanics that voted decades for, um, for, for democratic candidates, never, never were Republican. Um, an area that I spent a lot of time with was Mavitt County, which has Del Rio and Eagle Pass. I believe they hadn't voted Republican over a hundred years. So when you're done and you actually talk to the folks in person, you get a better understanding. And then my goal too, was to produce everything in video format.

[00:12:06] It's one thing to tell your viewers, Hey, I saw 300 migrants and this person smuggled and yada, yada, yada. But when they get to see the video footage and you get to see actual human beings going through that, um, interviewing migrants that were sexually assaulted, especially the women, seeing children abiding at the border. I literally just covered a story about that in December when, when Texas DPS found a four year old girl all by herself, uh, in Mavitt County. And then I did further investigating. Then we found out that her mother was already in the United States. So those

[00:12:35] stories, when they reach Americans, um, I think really tried, really told the story in a different way that they were getting it from corporate media. It's one thing that we watch this segment on the news, and it's this quick two minutes, three minutes, uh, but we will tell the story in a whole different way. Uh, Twitter played a huge role, uh, because we got to put all the video format there. Um, so that was really my goal is that, and look, I'm in, I'm Sanhedrin, both of my parents are in the

[00:13:01] game. So I always wanted to make a goal to tell a story from the migrant perspective as well. Um, so at least when you at least watch my report, you got that really full story and say, wait a minute, no one is winning here, right? Because, um, these managers are being sexual assaulted. They're being abused. They're being held in stash houses by hotels. On the other side, you have Americans, like I said, who have never seen this issue. Like when you're in a capacity, when you're in a town that only has six ambulances for the town of county, and all those six ambulances are being

[00:13:30] basically called every hour to the board because, you know, they found a child by himself. They're pulling their living in a dead body or someone almost drowned it. So you need to take them to the emergency room. That I think played a massive role and the Biden administration just ignored their own voters. I never really understood that. I mean, back in 2023, I was like, these are not counties that is ignored. These are his loyal supporters. I just never understood it. And at the end of the day,

[00:13:58] the Democrats ended up paying for that in his presidential election. Uh, so were you correct me? Were you on, were you reporting on this in the first Trump administration at all? So this is what I mean. So the first administration, I was currently in immigration, but I was it was around 2016. I was in community college. So

[00:14:19] during the Trump administration, the story was the caravans that were trying to make it into the United States. So, um, I actually traveled to Mexico and I got to enter and like interview the migrants and everything, but that's a much different story because they were reaching the border. They were crossing illegally, obviously in any, in these vast numbers. My very first time on the border was like right when Biden got elected. So as soon as Biden took office,

[00:14:46] you know, Biden takes office, uh, January, 2021, I hit the ground, uh, in McAllen. Uh, I believe it was March, 2021. And my first night in McAllen, I ran into a group of 300 migrants. And the first kind of light bulb that kind of went like, that kind of like turned out in my head that this is going to be a different story was I ran into this, to this massive group of migrants. And I remember that in Biden, the few migrants that did get into the United States illegally,

[00:15:11] I mean, under Trump is they completely wanted to avoid border patrol. So as soon as they passed illegally, they were like taken off into the U S did not want to be apprehended by U S border patrol agents. But under Biden, I mean, I went into this group of 300 migrants and, and this big group runs up to me and goes, where is border patrol? Where is the border patrol? And I was like, I was confused out of the way. What do you, what do you mean? And they're like, we want to turn ourselves in. We want to turn ourselves in. And that was like, whoa,

[00:15:40] that was a little moment for me. Cause it was like, wait a minute under this administration, they do not fear federal authorities. They actually want to turn themselves in. And then obviously later we start to learn the reason they want to turn themselves in is because migrants knew under the Biden administration, that they would basically be processed. The process takes maybe, you know, three to five days, but then they would be released into the U S with a court date. So instead of being detained, you know, going to like a migrant detention center and then

[00:16:07] basically possibly be on the route to deportation, they knew that they were being led into the country. And then the issue with that is those migrants didn't communicate that to the rest who are either going to make the journey or whether they should take the journey and say, Hey, under this administration, if you cross illegally, you get released into the U S and then essentially you get to go to the state where, where you want to reside. And that was an early 2021.

[00:16:34] And that the key changed the game obviously for the next four years. Well, we started to see the hundreds of thousands come out every single month, get released. It got so bad that in 2023, when you interview a migrant who got released, you would say, Hey, when is your court date? And they would show you the immigration papers and their court date wouldn't be for another seven to eight years. I don't know if you were a migrant in 2023, they didn't have a court date to 2030. So that technically meant, technically with that immigration

[00:17:01] paper and with that court date, that technically meant now they have legal basis in the United States, at least for seven years. So, um, early 2021, that's really started to unravel, which now is going to be known as, as the big border prices. Yeah. Yeah. And the reason I asked is because, uh, you, you see it firsthand. I wanted to see what your impression was sort of with the changing of the guard and you kind of touched upon it with Biden and how immigrant or

[00:17:31] migrants were treated or, um, you know, border patrol was treating them compared to now, which is three weeks. It feels like it's already been like three months with president Trump. Uh, so much has happened with president Trump. It feels like three months. Um, if you've seen a difference that you can talk about between the two administrations already. And I feel like there's already been a lot of action on the border with president Trump and how he's kind of cracking down on it.

[00:18:01] Well, so far I believe the latest numbers is the illegal crossings have absolutely plummeted. So I get by now is kind of used to go into the border and I could see a hundred migrants in the first being on the ground. I know it sounds a bit crazy, but I mean, that was really the reality of the situation. Uh, now it's rare. It's super rare to even see somebody pass illegally. I believe through the whole Southern border right now, they're averaging like around or less than 600 a day, which I mean,

[00:18:28] I've been going to be an eagle past Texas. You could see 600 in two hours. Um, so that's a big, that's a really big change in law enforcement. Um, my administration was as little as it ever could be. I remember one, the one conversation that always stands out was a bird patrol agent telling me, he said, hold on, I am an Uber driver now. And I'm like, what do you, what do you mean by that? He goes, all I do is wait for my minutes to cross illegally into the United States.

[00:18:56] I basically pick them up, take them to a processing center. And I do that for my 12 hours shift. I'm just an Uber driver. There's no, there's no enforcement. So just right after, after that, um, has already changed with law enforcement. And also the messaging. I think messaging is a big, is a big story when it comes to immigration. If you guys remember when Biden and Kamala were campaigning before they took office the first, first time, they were putting

[00:19:23] the message out saying, we're not going to treat you like the previous administration. We're not going to treat you inhumane. We're not going to be doing deportations. So that was already the invitation to come. And obviously, Megan, Megan said, and we've already seen the messaging completely 180 change with Trump, right? Shut down the board. I mean, even, um, I'm not sure the other follow that law, like the bird patrol on social media, they're like actively not publishing like deportations, migrants being detained, migrants like boarding buses and planes.

[00:19:51] So the messaging has already changed. And that's a big story too, because you want that messaging. As important as for the American voters, right? Trump wants to tell his voters, hey, I am doing what you voted, uh, voted me in for, right? The mass deportation plan. It's almost more important to get that messaging across to the migrant community saying, hey, the system of you coming in illegally, we release you into the US, you get parole. Those days are completely over. Um, so it's been a massive change just in the numbers that I said, you're getting now under 600, um, a day. Um, it's just,

[00:20:22] it's kind of astonishing of just how fast it is. Um, and we can probably see those numbers even go lower as this mass deportation plan continues to carry out. And that messaging continues to hit whether they're in South America, Central America, Europe, Middle East, who are thinking of making their journey now. Yeah. I think a lot of it is the, you can call it like the Trump effect of just him being in office and the way he talks. Um, and to your point, messaging is a big thing.

[00:20:52] I think when you hammer home, we're not going to be doing what the previous administration does. You're not going to be able to get in and sit around for seven to eight years until your court day. Like this is, there's a whole different, it's all, you know, a whole new sheriff's in town. Um, I mean that reverberates to those in other countries who want to migrate here or try to get in and they go, well, it's not worth the trek for a lot of these, you know, migrants who are trying

[00:21:19] to get here. It's a long trek. It's an arduous trek. Um, sometimes they end up paying coyotes and cartels, tons of money, stuff that they loan, like they take out loans to do this. Um, but I think now the risk and reward for a lot of migrants is outweighed of like, I, I'm not going to try it anymore because I know it's going to be so tough to get in. And it's like a, it's a no, uh, you know,

[00:21:46] what was the word I'm trying to look for? No nonsense kind of policy of dealing with migrants from here on out. I think the messaging works that way too, just as much as people on the border themselves and the images of port. Yeah, go ahead. Well, I'll say, and just like a big kind of from a, from a policy standpoint, Trump reintroducing that remain in Mexico policy plays a massive role. Uh, because now if you're a migrant and if you cross illegally into the U S and you're looking

[00:22:15] to seek asylum instead of now being released into the U S and say, okay, you get an asylum court case, but it's not for three or four years. Welcome to the U S you now have to remain in Mexico. So for a migrant now, it's like, is it really worth taking that dangerous journey? The most part of the next day, there's probably that journey, depending on what country you're coming from. It's just traveling through Mexico. Cause you're now dealing with multiple different cartels, smuggling

[00:22:40] criminals. Uh, you have to prove Mexican law enforcement first, that also extorts migrants. Um, and most of these migrants that are living in these boyatons, they end up getting kidnapped, extorted. I covered similar, so many stories around that issue. So now with that remaining Mexico policy, uh, now instilled and reinstated, that plays a massive role in the, in the deterrent. So the messaging matters, um, according to my sources, 10,000 of the Mexican now soldiers have

[00:23:09] arrived at the Northern border that comes from that terrible agreement with Friday, the shine bomb and president Trump. So we'll kind of see how this continues to play out. But the policy, the messaging, the mail, it's come done a complete 180 and Trump has not even been in office for 30 days on this story of immigration. I think it was usually something. She looked like you was about to say something. So I'm going to let you say something.

[00:23:35] Oh, me? I was just, no, I, I, all this is just such astounding information because obviously we hear what we hear in articles and stuff, but you know, you, like we've talked about, you're actually on the ground, you're witnessing this at, um, when you talk about the extortion, are there, um, a lot of these people being extorted to carry drugs, like the fentanyl issue has obviously been a huge thing, uh, in America, but in California in general, I think in 20,

[00:24:02] it was at 22, there was enough fentanyl across the border to kill like the entire population of the United States twice. And, um, and I'm wondering if that's like something that they've been using a lot of these migrants for the cartels is to get drugs into, into the United States. So what cartels like to do typically is they actually view, they've used the dual citizenship to their massive advantage. So what they will do is, um, and this is something that that's kind

[00:24:32] of been going on for a while, but for instance, like cartel leaders and bosses in Mexico, what they'll do purposely is they, they have kids, but they make sure that their wives or girlfriends give both to those children on U S soil. So then those children now have a U S citizenship. And then obviously with the parents being Mexican nationals, they can have dual, dual national, but having that, that their children being U S citizens, um, they call them medical juniors.

[00:24:56] So the medical juniors are the ones that go back and forth from the U S and are able to transport drugs in and out without being like a big, big red flag. Um, it's actually super rare for them to like use migrants. They, they, they typically just use what they call medical juniors or their own Mexican nationals to carry out any drugs funding. Now migrants are exterminated and kidnapped all on the basis of crossing into the U S. Um, illegally. I think one of the most fascinating stories was

[00:25:25] the Chinese. And the reason why I mentioned the Chinese is, um, I started reporting on the California border, like late 2023. And when I got to the California border, we were about 60 miles east out of San Diego and that area of Jacuma hot springs. And we were running into hundreds, if not thousands per Chinese nationals per week at the California border. They weren't coming through Texas. They weren't coming through Arizona, but they were coming through California. So we were

[00:25:54] further investigating and finding out where. And what we found out is Mexican contels were charging Chinese nationals up to $35,000 to be smuggled into the U S. So we saw a big Chinese surge in Texas and that Rio Grande Valley, but in California, they were coming in by the thousands. And we actually got to interview some of the Chinese migrants. What's fascinating, particularly with the Chinese is,

[00:26:19] is you won't see any Chinese migrants in minor caravans. You won't see them like sleeping on the streets of Mexico as they make their journey to, to, to the U S border. You won't see them jumping on the, they call it the train of death. So they won't be jumping on like trains and going to Mexican border towns. They were essentially getting first class treatment by the cartels. So they were in hotels, the cartels crushed them on what flights it take to get to Tijuana. And then the smugglers would pick them up from Tijuana and then take them to, uh, like to Tate or that, that, that out of Mexico. Then they would

[00:26:48] cross it to, uh, Jakuma. So everything, when it comes to migrants, I mean, they were, it was usually like an unlimited inventory for Mexican cartels. So they, the top of it is on that. What they did these migrants for is essentially to distract border patrols. So what they will do is, for instance, we'll be in Texas is they'll pick a spot in Texas and they'll smuggle like 300 migrants. And now if you're boat patrol and local law enforcement, not only the resources are tied up and that they're handing

[00:27:16] 300 migrants, you have to begin medical resources. You have to use transport resources. So when all of that is getting, um, kind of compiled into just one area, that's when the drugs was, was set to come in because now you have this massive distraction and then all the drugs started to flare in. So that's one thing that boat patrol was really concerned under the Biden administration. Is that they were being overwhelmed on purpose by big migrant groups. And then that's where cartels would use the kind of mules to then bring in the drugs because there was such as there wasn't

[00:27:45] any border security. Um, so it's kind of fascinating to see how this kind of movie played out on the board and how migrants were essentially used, uh, to be the distraction, bringing drugs. And at the same time for cartels, because you had a hundred of thousands of migrants coming in, you had an unlimited inventory. You had an almost unlimited cash flow when it came to the Biden administration, obviously right now in the trend, they're trying to crack down on that. Um, and it seems as of now, they've done a pretty good job. We'll kind of see what happens in these

[00:28:13] next kind of three to four years. That is some serious organized crime. I had no idea. Speaker 1 Wow. What is that El Chapo didn't get, you know, worth how many billions of dollars by not being organized? Uh, Speaker 2 And this is just a fun fact. I'm from California. El Chapo's twin values were born about 15 minutes where I'm from right now at the, at the, uh, Speaker 1 Wow. Speaker 1 So just kind of something that maybe example

[00:28:41] is they use their kids to be boarding the U.S. Gang, gain that U.S. citizenship. Speaker 2 And they'll use the kids as more of the transporters to deal with the more drugs. The my opinion for the co-workers was like, it was like a gift on their lot. They had no idea that the man administration was going to essentially open up the blazers and essentially for them to go like, wait a minute, we have this massive distraction that we could use now for federal authorities. And we can not, you know, continue to smoke with drugs at a much, much higher rate than probably ever did before.

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[00:30:02] slash California underground, they'll get that discount support the show. You can support stop box. And this is proudly made in the good old U S of a so go to stop box.com forward slash California underground for your discount. And let's get back to the show. Insane. Um, there's a question in the chat asking you, have you, I'm guessing it's, have you been to the border in California recently?

[00:30:25] Are there California national guards there? And if so, what capacity? That's a great question. So having was actually just at the California border, uh, this past week, we've been there for like about eight days, uh, reporting. I went back to the same hotspot areas where I was, I was covering illegal immigration on a black-and-black administration. Off the top, you are not seeing the big crowds anymore. That's completely done. It's, it's small.

[00:30:51] If, if, if any small groups coming in, um, in areas where that there's no border wall, um, here in California, Governor Gavin Newsom has not deployed California national guards to the border. So you're only seeing border patrol agents. You're also now seeing, um, this is closer to the center, the central point of entry in the, um, you're seeing Marines, but the Marines, once again, that's deployed under the, under the defense department, that's under the Trump administration.

[00:31:18] So you're not seeing local government enforcement and you won't see state law enforcement because that, the state law enforcement has to come from Gavin Newsom. Uh, he has not deployed that. He didn't deploy that under the administration. Now that's a completely different story from Texas, right? So you, if you go to Texas under Governor Greg Ivo, they deploy the big state law enforcement. So that's Texas DPS. That, those are the state troopers. Not only that, uh, uh, Ivo has also deployed Texas national guard. So when you were there, you see Texas national guard,

[00:31:47] you see, uh, there's, there's state troopers all looking in coordination with border patrol. And Greg Ivo has also taken a further way. You actually see national guard state troopers building out barricades, building out addition, the razor wall, uh, the state troopers played a big round with placing those buoys in the middle of the middle down to stop migrants from swimming into the Texas. So here in California, you will see that still the federal response. You'll see border patrol.

[00:32:11] You will see Marines. The boat is 10 times much more quiet, um, than it was under the bottom of the administration. So it's already having a big effect. The issue with California is they have miles and miles where there is no border wall. So you're at the scene, some of the things, some of the Mexican side are always going to adapt and adjust to any situation. So some of the, are not bringing any migrants in the areas where the Marines are.

[00:32:36] They're going 60 miles out, getting a Jatum area compo where there's no bowling in the middle of the night and sneaking in those individuals. And we're talking about Andrew Smillers. I just interviewed, I'm not sure if you guys are familiar with him yet. His name is Corey Gunnarow. He lives in that area. His game cameras have been capturing armed Smillers bringing in these small groups. So I'm actually this weekend. It would be kind of highlighting that story where you're seeing Mexican Smillers that say,

[00:33:03] hey, if they have Marines placed in San Ysidro or if they have Marines placed here, we just move out there where there's no active presence of Marines and bringing in those small groups. You're seeing in real time Mexican Smillers adjust. Now, I'm not sure if that will stop because I know Claudia Sheinbaum, the Mexican president just deployed about 3,000 Mexican soldiers in that area that they got, they kind of T1 up behind California area. So we'll see if that slows down. I'm not sure, but we are seeing Smillers now adjust in real time.

[00:33:32] We like to make the joke that, uh, how many years ago? I can't remember now Camille where Gavin Newsom was bragging that he increased border or national guard presence on the border 50%. And then we looked it up. And there were six national guard on the border at that time. So he increased it by three more, but now I guess he reduced it by a hundred percent. So if we're playing

[00:33:57] fun with percentages, there is now no more national guard on the border. Um, which is kind of odd considering he knows this is everything he does is political. We know that that's for sure. Um, we were just talking about this issue, uh, recently, actually this on this weekend's episode, because we were kind of fact checking, uh, Congresswoman Sarah Jacobs from San Diego.

[00:34:23] And I, I was reading an article from the federalist and you, I think you can speak to this as well, where somebody had gone over in Juarez to like talk to migrants in those migrant shelters in the remain in Mexico. This was back in 2019. And they, a lot of them were from Honduras and a lot of them were, you know, coming here for one reason. They knew that they could just get in. They could,

[00:34:49] once they got in, once they got that asylum, they could just say, okay, I'm in, I'm got my court date. Um, but then he kind of pressed them about like, well, you had to flee Honduras, right? Like it's obviously it's dangerous. They want to kill you and your family. Like you're being persecuted and all of them that this guy talked to, they were like, no, I didn't, I don't see it that way. Like I like my country. I just wanted to come here for a better life. Um,

[00:35:17] is there any being on the ground and interviewing migrants coming across and talking to them? Are there any interesting stories that you've come across that you could share with us about like their journey or why they're coming or anything like that, that kind of sticks out to you? Yeah. I know a few, um, I was fascinated because of the administration, just amount of nationalities that I came across, um, was always like intriguing to me. And I always, and every nationality kind of

[00:35:47] has like a different route or different kind of way they have to make it in. Um, so first, the best interesting to me was the Chinese. I was always like, that's like the angle as a journalist, I was fascinated about, especially when I found out they were paying messing cartels up to 35 grand to come into the U S and they were getting the VIP treatment. So one thing I found out with the Chinese particularly was, um, they found a loophole with Ecuador. So Ecuador, uh, I believe they

[00:36:14] changed it in that because I'm just not writing that, but Ecuador did not require a travel visa for Chinese nationals. So the Chinese will then fly to Ecuador and the coordination of cartels in South America and then Central America, cartels will then get them to Ecuador. They will get them to an area called Neocoli, Colombia, where they would stay in hotels. And from there, they will take a boat to

[00:36:40] Panama and then they will cross through the Dering Gap, which is like Dering Gap is probably the most dangerous route in the world when it comes to migration. It's basically a jungle that's taken over by not the cartels, not the criminals, uh, hundreds of dead bodies, if not thousands, live all over this jungle. And I've interviewed migrants myself who show me people still these dead bodies in Dering Gap or that their own children, like their might, when they're, you know, coming with their children, their children are walking over dead bodies in the Dering Gap.

[00:37:07] But the Chinese was fascinating because they found a new point in South America and for them, that was good enough to then make it into the U.S. So like I said, they would go to South America, they would go to Ecuador because of their no travel visa. Some countries would then get them from Ecuador to Colombia. And they never had Neocoli, Colombia. From Neocoli, Colombia, they would take boats to Panama. From Panama, they would cross through the Dering Gap. From there, they would actually get into Mexico and instead of kind of tracking through Mexico like every other migrant does,

[00:37:36] because they're getting that first class treatment with Cortez. Some would fly to Cancun, some would fly to other areas. And so they also would bring them to stand up at the Tijuana airport. And once they get to Tijuana airport, they were crossing illegally. So that was fascinating because you start to understand the rants. If the Chinese take it, I think we were the first journalists to start repairing the rants and how people were going to play the way with a no travel visa. When I speak with Cubans, because anytime I would interview Cubans or put, you know,

[00:38:02] put out in my opinion that people, Cubans cross over and this is what they said, you know, the climate's always like, well, how do they get from Cuba to the US? Like they're not, they're not island. And when I was speaking with Cuban nationals, they had the same loophole, but their loophole came with Nicaragua. So Nicaragua, for example, would not require a travel visa with Cubans. So Cubans would then just take a long way flight from Cuba to Nicaragua and then they'll begin their journey to the US border.

[00:38:29] What was interesting, according to what Cuban migrants told me is that the Cuban government knew what was going on. So for instance, if you would buy a one-way flight from Cuba to Nicaragua, they would upcharge it. So they would charge about five grand for this flight. So they would charge five grand knowing that these Cuban nationals were never going to return back to their home country and they would start their journey from there. So it was interesting to learn kind of the nooks and crannies of their journey.

[00:38:57] The most kind of, the heartbreaking ones really came out of San Texas when I was in Wilma, I was in McAllen and migrants that would arrive there, the Mexican battle was Reynosa. Reynosa is infamously controlled by the Gulf cartel. And what was really sad is that the, is that as soon as migrants would arrive, the Gulf cartel would

[00:39:21] kidnap the migrants, assault them, beat them up, extant them. And once they paid another amount, and the thing is too, is, is some of these migrants were not having money. They were essentially indentured servants to these cartels. So these cartels would say, okay, we'll get you to the US, but you have to start wanting that money back. So we were speaking to hundreds of migrants that would end up in Reynosa, take that out of the Gulf cartel, held up in stash houses, and the Gulf cartel would

[00:39:49] either get that money from either the family members that were already in the US or back in their home countries. And that was really a sad story. And then we also, in that same kind of area, we ran into the issue where the Gulf cartel was meddling hundreds of kids in the middle of the night in Roma, Texas. So back, so I would be in the Roma, Texas, I would be in the base of the river, and we started to run into hundreds of kids with colored wristbands. And what was interesting is that

[00:40:17] I didn't know what the colored wristbands were. And I spoke with an immigration Mexican source who basically said, the colored wristband basically means that they paid, they paid the cartel, but that means that then now they're basically indentured servants to the cartel. So these kids essentially owed money to the cartels or their parents did. And we started to learn about that system, how cartels were basically labeled migrants, so who paid this or who paid that, and really started to

[00:40:42] treat migrants like Amazon products. Just recently, just recently, I was just in, this was in December, we discovered a full loan bill all by herself on the southern border. She was abetted by a smuggler, so essentially the smuggler crossed into the U.S., dropped this 40-year-old girl all by herself, I mean, she could have died. Thank God that Texas State troopers discovered her. And the little girl

[00:41:05] had nothing but a note on her. And the note said, Mama Patti? And it had a phone number. So, I remember grabbing the note, I'm like, this is interesting. So then I called the number, and it was a South Carolina number. And the mother picks up, and I said, hey, like, I just found your girl, your daughter. In the middle of like, literally, on the southern border in Texas, like she's, she could have died all by herself. And the mother's, I'm like, where are you? And I'm

[00:41:34] thinking the mother is in Honduras, even though I was, you know, I was calling a South Carolina number. The mother goes like, no, no, that's my daughter. And actually, I'm already in the U.S. And I'm like, wait a minute. So you sent me all by herself? And she basically told us the story of how she paid smugglers in Honduras to take her daughter from Honduras into Mexico, placing her in the hands of multiple smugglers on this journey. And the mother then shared photos with us. So, the smuggler actually in Mexico would follow up with the mom every day. They would let the daughter talk

[00:42:04] to the mother. And the smuggler would then send her photos. So, I asked the mom, can you send me those photos? I would like to look at them. And by looking at the photos, I could actually see other kids in the background. So, what was interesting is, is this smuggler actually was moving a group of children and held in multiple stash houses. We do not know if those kids were being framed properly. They might have been sexually assaulted. Obviously, the children are very young, they're like two, three, four years old. So, they can't communicate if they were assaulted.

[00:42:34] And it was fascinating just to really see it in real time, to get the photos. And even the mother told me this, which is shocking. She says, for the past week, the smuggler stopped taking my calls. So, I thought that the cartel essentially kidnapped my daughter for good. And I mean, who knows what they would have done with her. She said, I didn't even know the daughter was alive until you called me.

[00:42:58] The plane called me and told me that her daughter was alive. And that's the story of like hundreds and thousands. And once again, no matter what your perspective is on immigration is, a lot of children are really stuck in the middle of this. And it's not their fault. Because of the system here in the United States is overwhelmed. Many of these children go unaccounted for. They go

[00:43:23] missing once they get released to their sponsors. It's a sad story. And then just to kind of connect this to California a bit, is I started seeing this issue with the marijuana. So, when I started covering the illegal marijuana farms, I'm from the end of the valley. So, the deserts out here in the outskirts, it's like you know, about Mexican cartels and these huge illegal marijuana farms. But I didn't realize that much of the cartels later traffic came from teenagers that they were actually

[00:43:50] smiling from Honduras. So, I actually spoke to one resident in California. He lives kind of in the outskirts of Lancaster. And when I was speaking to this farmer, he said, hey, one day I wake up and I'm hearing these loud noises out of my farm. And when I, when I, when I go out there, it's like four in the morning. It was a bunch of Honduran teenagers tapping into his water lines and pulling the water so then the cartels could use that water to grow weed illegally. And speaking with

[00:44:18] Riverside County law enforcement, San Bernardino County law enforcement, they said Jorge, many of these migrants, basically they bring them into the country illegally because they're a debt to the cartels. The cartels actually place them in a, in a, in these marijuana farms. And they basically now have a free labor force that can't go anywhere. They don't want to report that these migrants are too scared to turn to law enforcement because of their immigration status. And they're held against their will in these like shacks. Like here in that little valley, they were holding shacks with like

[00:44:47] over a hundred, you know, it's super hot, like a hundred degree weather, for 16 hours a day, essentially trapped under the pad of these cartels. I went to Northern California. I spoke to a firefighter when the firefighters brought that over there at an illegal marijuana farm. They actually saved three migrants from Honduras. Same thing. These, these Hondurans were essentially kidnapped by the cartels, driven to the, to the mountains of

[00:45:13] of Northern California. How it gets their will. They were basically back to a day that lied if it wasn't for firefighters in Northern California coming in to save them from, from this operation. So that's the story of like hundreds and thousands, uh, when it comes to the simulation. So I can go on and up and on. Just to make folks realize that many of the, of these migrants, they get put into either sex trafficking, uh, from what I said, a lot of labor trafficking, especially connected to the marijuana

[00:45:40] issue. They go unaccounted for it. And they're essentially in debt to cartels in Mexico who already know where their family members live. Um, and could pop, you know, like I said, just who knows about all the other dark stories that, that we, we probably don't, don't see. And like I said, with that one in South Carolina, she literally thought like when the smoke stopped answering, that's it. They kidnapped my, the cartel kidnapped my four year old girl. And at the end of the day, she put her own daughter, uh, in that situation. So she basically was like crying, faking me saying,

[00:46:09] if it wasn't for you, I would have no idea that my daughter was alive, but that essentially she made it to, to us soil. The daughter after that goes in under federal custody for at least a month. So health and human services, then starts to go through the verification process to find out if the mother's really the sponsor in this situation. It was actually went to South Carolina to meet them up. So in this rare situation, that is really the month. But many of these kids get released as sponsors who are not their family members, who are not their parents. And these kids get, get lost and unaccounted for here in the U S.

[00:46:38] That's horrifying. Yeah. That story. Uh, I mean, you're telling that story and it's, it's weighing on my heart. It's like breaking my heart, thinking of a small child, just trying to make it across, not knowing what's going on, just making it across the border. And I feel like that story gets like so overlooked in a lot of this, these arguments about, you know, there's a ton of

[00:47:03] protests that are going on out here in LA and San Diego, specifically LA is going crazy. Um, but this, that humanitarian side of, of what's happening at the border, it just never seems to get, get brought up by people who are arguing in favor of it. Yeah. I don't want to interrupt you, but just like, I just want to make this point because I think people like for me, what really touched me as a reporter was like, I was an Eagle class Texas and it was to the point during their peak,

[00:47:32] they're, they were averaging a drowning a day in a small town. Right. And I go to, it was me and the local constable there, Sheriff Boyles, Constable Boyles. And we go to the local cemetery. This is small town Eagle Pass. We were collecting so many dead bodies out of the water that their local cemetery was running out of room of where to put the bodies. So Eagle Pass, Texas had to call Governor Havill and says, you need to send a freezer trailer because we need to preserve these

[00:48:01] bodies in a freezer trailer. We do, we literally do not have room in the cemetery. And I remember looking in the cemetery and, um, and I remember seeing the adults. So the adults obviously, you know, because they can't even identify them. So you're seeing classes for John Doe, Jane Doe, John Doe, Jane Doe. But the part that like absolutely destroyed me, uh, as a reporter was when I got to the, to the section where they buried the children. And then you see baby Jane Doe,

[00:48:26] baby John Doe. And I was like, and I was, and I go to the constable, I said constable, this can't really be the reality. Right. He said, they were pulling out babies, like six months, Johnny in the Rio Grande, nine months, a two year old, three year old. And he's like, what a little town. He said, this is not what they're signed up for. This is not what the first responders signed up for. And he says us as law enforcement now are facing trauma because we're

[00:48:53] constantly pulling out dead bodies. And I've been on that book of that Rio Grande and I've seen families being swept. And no matter how you feel about immigration, one thing is true is there's been, there is a record number of migrant deaths under the Biden administration. And you never see a celebrity try to make a campaign about that. There's no campaign about the children that drowned in that Rio Grande rally. There's no campaign about the kids that I ran into who were abandoning

[00:49:22] the deserts of the Rio Grande. I mean, just like I said, the most recent case, thank God this 40 year old girl in Mavik County that was abandoned was discovered by the Texas state trooper. Or she could have just been like another state. So like, I just want to point to that, that people kind of forget, like, just the amount of lives that were lost. This could have been so horrible. We're going to fill in these small American towns. And like I said, I mean, I'm standing at the cemetery and I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that I was seeing baby

[00:49:51] John, just the amount of it. And then I was also there when the freezer trailers arrived in the Harley-Eggen, started putting bodies in the freezer trailer. I mean, it really got that bad. And I think a lot of people kind of forget that. So I just kind of wanted to remind viewers, this really did happen. So that's why some people see Mavikone, you know, a lot of people use the term border crisis, which is factual, but I've used the term humanitarian crisis, because if this was

[00:50:17] happening in another country, that's exactly what we call it. It just happened right here on the southern border on American soil. Yeah, it's you're you telling me this, I feel a pit in my stomach. So I can't even imagine what it was like for you being there and seeing it and no one, you know, there are people who talk about this. And a lot of people, I think need to really focus on the humanitarian crisis. Your point is 100%

[00:50:45] correct. This is a humanitarian crisis. You know, we call it a border crisis because they are trying to get across the border. But the stories you've been telling of what people have to go through and what people have to give up. And I mean, it's miraculous that that that little girl even made it to the United States. When you think about everything she has to go through, all the handoffs she has to go through. I mean, it talked about a leap of faith that your four year old daughter is

[00:51:15] going to make it from what was a Honduras and all the way up to America. And you're trusting these strangers and smugglers and stuff like that. That is incredible, incredible stories. I did, you know, I did want to bring up you, you kind of touched upon it. And I did want to let our listeners know, you have made two documentaries. One of them I found absolutely fascinating. Was it Narco

[00:51:41] California or Narcifornia where you were talking about these illegal weed farms in California? So that's sort of like the other half of what is happening here is it's not just okay, people get here and then that's it. They just disappear like, you know, a magic trick. There is a other side of this where I didn't even know it. Your reporting was fantastic. I recommend everybody go check it out

[00:52:09] about these illegal marijuana farms that have been run by cartels. They're stealing water out in Antelope Valley. And it just seems like California hasn't gotten a grasp on it. And this was a couple years ago, if I'm correct, the documentary, is there any, do you have any update on or anything you want to share with us about what that kind of situation going on in California? Yeah. So let me just explain how I stumbled upon it, um, you know, kind of where it is now. I'm here,

[00:52:38] probably in the, you know, do my number one thing immigration in South Texas. And I ran into Congressman Mike Garcia at the time from California. For folks who don't know, Mike Garcia was in Congress. He represented the district I am in right now in the Antelope Valley, you know, as Valencia. And so I was curious, I said, Congressman Garcia, like, well, brings out a lawmaker from SoCal to South Texas where like, you know, I know that you care about the immigration

[00:53:06] issue, but nothing here, it would really impact SoCal, right? And then, so Mike Garcia goes, well, the reason why I'm at the border right now, the reason I'm concerned is because in my district, we're having these illegal marijuana farms connected to Mexican capital and organized crime, and their labor force is coming from migrants here that they're smuggling and forcing to work. And, you know, when you hear that the first time, you know, I kind of chug with them like, this is not

[00:53:32] real. Uh, you know, like, well, he's, he's, he's overselling it. And then playing to the congressman, he actually is like, well, how do I invite you to a town hall? Um, the first one was in my backyard in Lancaster. The second one was in, uh, I do so usually for folks, uh, in SoCal, if you're, if you're driving past Valencia, you normally get to I do so before you get to the end of a valley. So I went to both and, uh, my job was to the floor, hearing from their residents

[00:54:00] themselves, which are more families in the middle of nowhere and really the outfits in the deserts. And they all had a similar story where these violent town members moved to their neighborhoods, essentially taken over those desert areas, started tapping into one illegally, bringing in migrants, forcing them to work, even throwing and shooting at these farmers. Um, and that kind of puts out that reporting. So as soon as, as soon as I got to actually hear from the residents

[00:54:28] themselves, I was like, this is no, you know, this is unbelievable. So I called at that time, I was at the Daily Caller. I applied to my producers and I just said, Hey guys, I think if you guys are okay with it, we could do an investigative documentary. And I want to also take it to the next level, uh, exposing this issue. But that time in local media covered it, but it was really, they didn't go deep in it. Uh, if you, if you ever have like a story from there, it would be like a, like a, like a local news reporter. They'd be like in a helicopter. And they'd be like, Oh, there's a man in the farm there, man in the farm there.

[00:54:56] Uh, instead of doing that, what we did is like, we got drugs. Like I got, I got a drone guy. He's actually from San Diego, my buddy. And even in the middle of the night, and I didn't know how to see that we're going to these like parts. So these are going to the T by the way, and we start to the cartel girls in the middle of the night, and we start to fly the journal super late inside of the document exposing it. So we put out a first report called cartel. That really just focused on so-called what was interesting in that documentary film is that while we were cut,

[00:55:25] we were uncovering the Mexican cartel angle. So we got to work with San Bernardino County Sheriff, and San Bernardino had the same issue, but the Chinese started coming in. So the Chinese then also got involved in the League of Marijuana. The Chinese also smartened their own Chinese nationals to work on these guys. So we started really hitting, hitting those angles. After we put out that first film, about six months later, I was called by a local rat first from the man out of nearly California. So he goes, Hey, I saw you documentary. Good job.

[00:55:52] He said, Hey, I saw that in your, in your documentary that in San Bernardino, they got about 1,500 illegal man down the farm. He's like, I'm in Siskiyou County. Siskiyou County has 5,000. And I was like, what? Wow. So we went to Siskiyou County, same issue. They had the issue with the Hmong community. So the Hmong that live in Minnesota, were not going to know the California property. Same thing. Stealing around, smuggling migrants, the whole deal. And so we started really exposing a lot of that issue.

[00:56:22] I think the wrong stuff was a big thing for us here in California. And what was interesting is how that issue has grown. So now, instead of just being this isolated problem to California, now the Chinese and Mexicans on this issue have spread up to New Mexico. So now New Mexico has the legal marijuana farms, Oklahoma. I was in Oklahoma last year. Oklahoma basically marked it as a 90% Chinese in these illegal marijuana grows.

[00:56:50] So for me, what was interesting at that time is with Saginaw, that the California issued an issue that the California just couldn't get a handle on because of the rest. I mean, it was Prop 62. It has now spread out to multiple states. So now you have Oklahoma dealing with these illegal marijuana grows. The Chinese are also in Maine, New Mexico, and the parts going out in other states yet. It's probably going under-reported. So it's kind of fascinating to watch this issue of illegal marijuana,

[00:57:19] but it's just running back on nationwide. And now the Chinese are essentially battling the cartels for the kind of a market, for the black market of marijuana. Now, I'm just speaking with a few law enforcement sources that are really tied into this issue. And I'm still going to do some further reporting, but it is making sense what they're telling me. What they're telling me is that the Mexicans and the Chinese have an agreement

[00:57:45] where the Mexicans will continue to get fentanyl precursors that are produced in China, being brought into Mexico. That's where they produce the fentanyl. The agreement is that they get the access to those precursors. What the Chinese get is they get access to the black market marijuana industry. Because when I was in Oklahoma, we were not living into one single illegal marijuana from those controlled by a Mexican cartel. They were all Chinese nationals. So on the ground, it does make sense.

[00:58:14] So we're still investigating how true maybe that deal is or how it's being brokered out. It's not just Mexicans involved in this, not even like the Chinese, but it's an issue that has completely exploded. Ellery County particularly just cannot get a handling on this issue because of fending, because of the laws. It's kind of hard-bicking just from the American side because I've interviewed just countless

[00:58:44] of great people whose laws have certainly changed. I mean, could you imagine you and your wife buying a dream property out in the middle of the movie, you have your horses, your kids can go hiking. I mean, it's the type of land that anyone would want, right? And then all of a sudden, you have cartels in your, maybe in your backyard, threatening you, stealing your water, shooting at your neighbors. And what the cartels also do is they've used all of this to push Americans out. And then a little strategy that they're also using is they'll go up to the homeowners and go,

[00:59:14] hey, these are bad and really bad for you. Your neighbors have moved out. There's been the number of things is higher. And they say, your home in the market is worth $200,000. Plus the cartel, we'll give you $320 cash. We need you out by the first. If you're dealing with money, nine times out of ten, you're just taking the cash and you're leaving. So that's kind of where the hard-bidding story of it too is just watching people's lives completely change. And then local reinforcement does not be able to, I mean, in the middle of the matter,

[00:59:42] you can't look around the first, they're about two, three hours away. So that's kind of been the hard-bidding story of this. We were trying to highlight the best we can with our documentaries. But for me, that's, that's been a hard-bidding is that the issue has only grown and now it's in multiple states. Yeah, it's, I suggest anybody who's tuning in, go check those out. Um, Cartelville, USA, Narcophornia, um, great reporting on both of them.

[01:00:07] It opened my eyes that I was, I was shocked that this is literally happening here in our backyard in California. Um, yet somehow we, our state legislature found $25 million for Trump proofing California, but we can't tackle illegal marijuana grows here in our backyard. So, um, we got a couple minutes left coming up on the hour. Um, we were kind of joking. You're at News Nation now. Um, I asked you about Chris Cuomo, what kind of guy he is.

[01:00:36] Uh, you say he's a pretty nice guy. Um, but I was actually looking at the list and it looks like a great amount of reporters that I know. Um, tell us a little bit about what you're doing over at News Nation and where people can find you. So super fascinating is, um, News Nation is a new cable team. It's a cable TV news outlet. Um, but they really well appreciated if they don't have the perspective to tell you the story from a Republican angle or a Democrat angle.

[01:01:03] They just want to be the old school news where we just report the news and then we let you, the viewer, decide. Um, so that's been really welcoming, especially for a reporter like me because I came from a really gonzo style. I didn't know where that could fit. And a traditional news organization that has like a political lens that says that we only want you to tell it this way. But they would allow me to really tell a story from our angles and other great reporters who have been mentioned, who's one of our top crime guys. He's like all around the nation and that.

[01:01:32] Um, my other colleague on the border, Ali Brown is fantastic in her sources with board patrol. And just trying to tell the story from a neutral angle, we want to just let voters decide, um, you know, on their own. And I think one example of that, uh, and it may not seem like a big deal to people, but in the news it is.

[01:01:51] If you watch, for instance, on President Trump's recent campaign, if you watch him, uh, if you watch MSNBC or CNN, for example, um, they try to tell you, tell you their opinion on Trump as he's like, like, giving a speech at a campaign rally. Like, sometimes they don't even show his campaign rally and sometimes they'll be like, oh, we're here, we are to fact check it.

[01:02:14] What News Nation did is, every time Trump took the stage, we'll show you his speech and let you decide if you like him, if you think he's crazy, if you don't think he's crazy. Like, whatever you want to decide, News Nation let you decide it. We don't want to play a role in that. I mean, Barrett K. Jr., you know, Barrett Kennedy Jr., his first town hall with the second news network was in News Nation. You know, we had him on, we went down to have him on and be like, tell me if he's a thing with this or if you have vaccine is this.

[01:02:44] It's just, we let RFK Jr. explain his views and we just let the viewer decide, do we like him, do we not? So we've kind of taken ourselves out of a picture of the story as it should be. I know it sounds like, well, of course, it should be, but News isn't portrayed like that anymore. And we, once again, are letting our viewers decide. And once again, I think in the business, we did a really good job covering it. Myself and Ali were really on the board of every single day. We're speaking to communities. We're showing folks the issue.

[01:03:14] And we're going to try to sway voters. We just said, hey, this is what's going on, whether you agree with it or not, or this impacts the way you vote. This is the reality. And it's kind of nice and refreshing to see that. I think if you watch Cuomo now, he tells a story from a different way. He's not in a CNN umbrella where he has to have a certain view on an issue. He's much more free. I believe Chris Cuomo, if I'm not mistaken, was the only mainstream anchor to actually go to East Palestine when that whole training environment happened.

[01:03:43] And he really got to tell the story of what those folks went through and even how the town were there. And any time I went to East Palestine, too, to cover that training environment, people are like, hey, we appreciate that you guys gave us a voice. You held the town hall. You guys were still here even after the news has left. So that's what we're really going back to, really trying to tell the story from the American angle. So what news organizations forget is that the people there is involved in Trump. You don't have to agree.

[01:04:12] You know, as a news organization, you might not agree with his views, but there is a mandate, and American people have set that mandate. So for me, as a reporter, it was fun to watch the mainstream media freak out with Trump one. They couldn't bend. They tried to blame a certain ethnic group. But if you were on the ground just saying the story from an American angle, it wasn't shocking. And for me, I always try to tell you, you know, I was running a bit with the Latino voter was thinking about.

[01:04:37] So when I was on the ground and I had a deal with that, Latino voters told me, hey, the big, I'm tired of it now. Like, I didn't realize there was an issue, and why did the Trump stop? I mean, it wasn't bad at seven. It was surprising to see the amount of Latinos, especially Latino men, that voted for Trump. We were already telling that story. So it's kind of just going back to the old school where we'll show the news, and then we'll let you decide if that's what you want.

[01:05:05] I like the sound of that, so I'm going to have to check it out. I mean, we obviously were a podcast with opinions, but we kind of go along the same route of like, hey, here's the information. You guys figure it out. Like, you know, you'd be surprised how many people like go and message me on Instagram or something. Like, oh, what should I do? Who do you support? You guys going to put out a – Camille and I knows this. We always get asked, are we going to put out a voter guide? And we're like, no, we're not going to put out a voter guide.

[01:05:35] Like, it's not our job to tell you who to vote for. Like, we'll give you facts, and we'll tell you the story. But we respect our viewers enough to be like, you guys are smart. You guys take the information. Agree or disagree with us. But that's what our job is here. Camille looked like she was going to say something. Well, speaking of opinions, I'm actually normally more vocal. I'm a mom. You've got me all kinds of, like, emotional.

[01:06:01] Like, this is – of course, I knew the voter situation was bad, and you kind of hear the stories here and there. And I had seen when you guys first found that four-year-old girl and you were putting out videos. I didn't know the update. And then your stories just kind of got more and more horrendous. And I'm going to have to, like, go decompress and hold all my kids who are teenagers. But still, I'm going to have to, like, eat chocolate and hold them and sob after this episode. So I apologize for being so quiet.

[01:06:27] I really, really appreciate the time that you're here spending with us and telling these stories as horrendous as they are. They need to be told. They need to be out there. So I just thank you so much for being here. No, thank you guys, too, man. I'm a big fan of the podcast. Anything California and really hitting that California angle for our residents here. I mean, I live in Texas now because I work on my heart for every in the Golden State, and I love my community.

[01:06:51] And I'm just glad that you guys are at least out there and creating us kind of a news angle and a space for folks in California to get educated on all the issues that are impacting us. I mean, California still jabs a land for the national conversation when it comes to politics, economy, and all the other issues. Yeah. Well, we appreciate it. We're trying to do our best, and I think there's a lot. There's plenty of stuff to talk about here in California and a lot of stories people don't even know about, like, you know, great journalists like yourself uncovering.

[01:07:21] Well, I feel like we could talk for probably another two hours, but coming up on an hour right now, it just means you'll have to come back sometime, Jorge. I don't know what to tell you. Where can people, before we log off, any last words? Where can people find you on social media, follow you, all that stuff? Yeah. So the two spots, obviously, as you guys could go on YouTube or Google, just put like NewsNation, Holy Ventura, we'll find out all my stories with NewsNation and everything we're doing now. You guys should just check out NewsNation as well.

[01:07:51] Social media-wise, if you're looking for the breaking news as it happens, follow me on X. It'll be Jorge Ventura TV on X. You can follow me there. Like I said, as soon as something happens, you know, we always get news to Twitter first. Once you're looking for the full stories or just those daily updates and kind of the full stories and everything, Instagram is great. Same thing. Jorge Ventura TV on Instagram. I post everything on there. I post a lot of interesting articles or just kind of like news angles that I always find. I always place them up there.

[01:08:20] So just keep up with me there. And then if viewers are always interested, you know, always message me. I'm always talking to folks back. If you have a question about anything, I'm always talking to folks about everything. So that's the two best spots for sure. Great. Well, again, thank you for coming on. And like I said, we could keep talking, but it just means you'll have to come on again some other time and very soon. And we want to hear an update on how the border is going when it's not 14 or 17 days since Trump's been inaugurated. So. All right.

[01:08:48] With that, we want to thank everyone for tuning in. Make sure you like, share, subscribe, review. All that stuff helps with the algorithm. And the best thing that you can do to help us in support this that is 100 percent free is make sure you share the show. And specifically this one. I think there's a lot of really good on the ground. I mean, Jorge stories are amazing. Amazing and shocking, I would say. And I think more people need to hear what's really going on on the ground.

[01:09:15] So make sure you share this episode with people who have questions about the border crisis. And with that, we'll see you on the next one. Have a good night. Later, everybody. Thank you for listening to another episode of California Underground. If you like what you heard, remember to subscribe, like and review it.

[01:09:42] And follow California Underground on social media for updates as to when new episodes are available.